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The Morris Canal Greenway is envisioned as a 111-mile continuous pedestrian and bicycle trail connecting
six counties in northern New Jersey. Once completed it will extend from the Delaware River on the west to
the Hudson River on the east.

Many segments of
the greenway have already been completed, but there is much work to do to create a continuous trail. The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), in partnership
with the Canal Society of New Jersey and the Morris Canal Working Group, recently completed a study that
presents a plan for a continuous greenway as closely aligned with the historic canal route as possible.

You can read the plan on the Morris Canal Greenway Corridor Study page.
The study recommends that the entire greenway be built in phases of short-, medium-, and long-term
projects. The short-term projects will address segments that already have funding or just require signage
or striping. More complicated long-term projects are expected to take more than 10 years to complete. The
study also offers design guidelines aimed at unifying the various greenway segments. This includes creating
signage and other features that accurately represent the history, character and contemporary role of the
canal.

The Morris Canal was built from 1825 to 1831 to transport Pennsylvania coal to markets in New Jersey and
New York. Known as the “Mountain Climbing Canal,” it overcame an elevation change of 1,674 feet over the
entire northern part of New Jersey through the use of inclined planes. This feature alone makes the Morris
Canal a national engineering marvel. It stretched 102 miles across six counties: Warren, Sussex, Morris,
Passaic, Essex and Hudson. Visit the About the Canal section to learn more.

The Morris Canal Working Group, formed by the NJTPA in 2012 to bring
together stakeholders, has been spearheading efforts to preserve the canal. Click the video to learn more
about the group.

March 15 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Come hear about the 11-mile stretch of canal between Port Murray and Saxton Falls in Warren County. Not only will you learn the history of the canal while viewing historic images, you'll discover great places to explore today!